Ernest Istook: “the gentleman is certainly correct. Reclaiming my time, this Committee on Appropriations is doing its work, whether the…”

“the gentleman is certainly correct. Reclaiming my time, this Committee on Appropriations is doing its work, whether the rest of Congress is able to for whatever reason fulfill their work or not. I regret that this is going to be a messy process. We are going to have some things stricken out of the bill. If the things that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure want stricken out of the bill are all out, we would be above our budget allocation. We would be in violation of the rules of this House on the amount of money that we have to spend. That is pretty bad when we have a deficit already to make it worse. We are not going to do that. We will make sure appropriate amendments are offered and that this bill ultimately is within the amount of money that has been allocated to our subcommittee. There may be some money that has been shifted about to what essentially will be a holding account, just to make sure that we reserve it, and we will resolve those things in committee. I realize it is confusing, Mr. Chairman, but I appreciate the trust and patience of the Members of this body in resolving it.”